Our funding has ensured Euro 2022 has had a long-term impact on women's and girls' grassroots football, a new report has found.
The FA have released the results of their UEFA Women's Euro 2022 legacy programme, highlighting the tournament’s successful impact on the women’s game across England.
The programme, which we supported with National Lottery funding, aimed to deliver lasting change in the nine places that hosted the tournament – Brentford, Brighton & Hove, Manchester & Trafford, Milton Keynes, Rotherham, Sheffield, Southampton, Wembley and Wigan & Leigh – with the FA committing to monitor progress for two years after the event.
We invested more than £2 million to support two projects: the development of place-based plans in the host cities and the staging of the Women’s Euro 2022 Roadshow, which took place in May and July 2022, just before the tournament kicked off.
And that funding has contributed to some hugely positive outcomes for the women’s and girls’ game at a community level, which was of course boosted by the Lionesses’ epic victory over Germany in the final:
- 519,000 new opportunities provided to engage women and girls in football
- 129,000 more girls playing football in schools
- 34,000 more women and girls playing football recreationally
- 10,300 more women and girls playing football in grassroots clubs
- 1,222 women and girls have taken the FA Playmaker coaching qualification
- 298 more FA-qualified female coaches in the female game
- 247 more FA-qualified female referees in the female game.
Our chief executive, Tim Hollingsworth, said: "These results clearly illustrate a sharp rise in both the opportunities available and participation levels among women and girls in football, thanks in no small part to the Lionesses’ unforgettable triumph at Wembley two years ago.
"They’re also testament to the FA’s fantastic work to ensure the Women’s Euros benefitted our wider communities and we’re thrilled to have played a part in that success and continuing work through our support and investment of National Lottery funding.
"Helping to grow female participation in our national sport is a key ambition for Sport England as we strive to ensure everyone has the same opportunities to be more active, regardless of their background, gender, income or postcode."
Our latest Active Lives Children and Young People report shows there now 845,000 girls in total playing football in England, an increase of 176,000 (4%) since the 2017-18 academic year, but girls (44%) are still less likely to be active than boys (51%).
The place-based plans sought to create the right infrastructure in the host cities ahead of the Euros so that there were established opportunities for women and girls to capitalise on the interest. To support that, our investment was used to part-fund the recruitment of seven women's recreation officers.
The work had a hugely positive impact as many new football opportunities were introduced in the host cities, including women’s walking football, refugee sessions, Just Play leagues and Soccercise.
It came on the back of our £1m investment targeted at getting more adult women playing football in the host cities, awarded in 2020, and £2m of funding to help the FA to develop Squad, a recreational programme for teenage girls that began in January 2022; we've since awarded an extra £900,000 to extend it for a further two years, from 2024 to 2026.